Something bad that turned into something magical...

[shakes20]

I love reading threads about other people's experiences in the parks, especially the magical ones! So, I would like to hear about times that something bad happened in WDW but it turned out better than you could have ever expected!!
My story... I was with my family in MK, we were in Fantasyland and I realized that I was missing my wallet. Credit cards, cash, driver's licence, room key/park ticket, everything was in that wallet. Obviously I was a little freaked out. The last ride we had been on was Winnie the Pooh, so I told my wife to wait by the carousel while I ran back to the ride. I told a CM what had happened and they went to talk to one of the ride operators at the front of the cue. CM comes back and says that a wallet had been found by a guest, given to a CM but had already been taken to Lost and Found on Main Street. So off I run to L&F, and sure enough, they have my wallet (cash and all, thank you anonymous honest and trustworthy guest). I hurry back to my family, not wanting to waste anymore of their time for my mistake, when I reached them, my daughter was just beaming. As it turned out, while I was on my little journey, hoping that our vacation was not ruined, Merlin had come out for the "Sword in the Stone" ceremony (goodness, I wish they still did that) and she had been chosen to pull the sword out. If I hadn't been an idiot, my daughter wouldn't have one of her most magical memories from Disney. Luckily, while I wasn't there to share that moment, my wife videotaped it so that I could see it (even if only after the fact).
Anyone else have a story to share?

 

[disney4life2008]

I love reading threads about other people's experiences in the parks, especially the magical ones! So, I would like to hear about times that something bad happened in WDW but it turned out better than you could have ever expected!!
My story... I was with my family in MK, we were in Fantasyland and I realized that I was missing my wallet. Credit cards, cash, driver's licence, room key/park ticket, everything was in that wallet. Obviously I was a little freaked out. The last ride we had been on was Winnie the Pooh, so I told my wife to wait by the carousel while I ran back to the ride. I told a CM what had happened and they went to talk to one of the ride operators at the front of the cue. CM comes back and says that a wallet had been found by a guest, given to a CM but had already been taken to Lost and Found on Main Street. So off I run to L&F, and sure enough, they have my wallet (cash and all, thank you anonymous honest and trustworthy guest). I hurry back to my family, not wanting to waste anymore of their time for my mistake, when I reached them, my daughter was just beaming. As it turned out, while I was on my little journey, hoping that our vacation was not ruined, Merlin had come out for the "Sword in the Stone" ceremony (goodness, I wish they still did that) and she had been chosen to pull the sword out. If I hadn't been an idiot, my daughter wouldn't have one of her most magical memories from Disney. Luckily, while I wasn't there to share that moment, my wife videotaped it so that I could see it (even if only after the fact).
Anyone else have a story to share?

I love stories like this. Something like this could ruin a vacation so its good to have a happy ending

 

[The Empress Lilly]

I once did something bad. I pickpocketed a wallet in Pooh's queue. Quickly I made my way for the MK exit. Alas, I got caught by security! My companion B. however came up with a cunning plan. We immediately started yapping how we had found this wallet and were returning it to Lost and Found. They had little choice but to take our word for it, grudgingly. At L&F the CM's were so impressed we returned a wallet, with all cash still in there, that they offered us a free night at the Grand Floridian!

 

[Nemo14]

I once did something bad. I pickpocketed a wallet in Pooh's queue. Quickly I made my way for the MK exit. Alas, I got caught by security! My companion B. however came up with a cunning plan. We immediately started yapping how we had found this wallet and were returning it to Lost and Found. They had little choice but to take our word for it, grudgingly. At L&F the CM's were so impressed we returned a wallet, with all cash still in there, that they offered us a free night at the Grand Floridian!

I'm sure @George can top that!

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Not me, but I remember reading a story (here? Allears?) about a Woman who put her wedding rings in a tissue to wash her hands and accidentally threw the tissue out with the rings in it at WL. The staff rescued them and they were returned to her.

 

[KDiS88]

One year my sister had my camera on her lap in One Man's Dream and when we got up to leave after the movie she didn't realize it fell off and by the time I noticed she didn't have it anymore we went back and the CMs said that no one had turned it in yet so we went to guest relations to tell them about my missing camera and gave them my information. This was all in the early afternoon when all this took place. We went to the 9:00 Fantasmic! And a teenage kid came up to us and said I think I found your camera, he had gone through the pictures and recognized my family from them!! I could not believe out of all those thousands of ppl in the theater he found us, my dad gave him some $$ for turning it in. I would have been devastated if I lost all my pictures from my vacation but everything turned out great!! So I guess you could say that this was something bad turn into something magical because I didn't lose any of my memories

 

[Hakunamatata]

I herd about some guy who broke some other guys nose and a broken camera. That was a good story.

 

[FettFan]

Not me, but I remember reading a story (here? Allears?) about a Woman who put her wedding rings in a tissue to wash her hands and accidentally threw the tissue out with the rings in it at WL. The staff rescued them and they were returned to her.

I remember that story here. Same thread had a fellow who lost his hat on Splash Mountain, only to have it show up a week later in the mail with a note from one of the CM's.

 

[Katiekitten1207]

Last time we were there they had got our booking wrong and only gave us a 7 day park hopper instead of a 14 day one. So after been denied entry from HS we went to guest relations sorted it out after proving we had booked and payed for a 14 day park hopper. As a result we were given free fast passes for ToT, TSM and RnR to use whenever we wanted as well as some disney dollars to cover the cost of a phone call back to England.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

Love reading stories like these.

 

[Weather_Lady]

In 2005 six of us arrived at WDW to check into Coronado Springs, having booked our vacation through a TA, fully paid in advance, with documents given to us by the TA. The CM at the desk had never seen anything like the paperwork we had and was unable to find any record whatsoever of our reservation in the system, even with the assistance of a manager. For about 20 minutes, we frantically tried to call our TA (who, of course, was not available -- it was Sunday and she wasn't scheduled to be back in the office until the next day). We were convinced that our vacation was ruined: we were going to have to find another hotel (it was Easter break and places were pretty well booked), pay for a hotel room and park tickets all over again, and simply hope we could sort the whole mess out when we got home.

But at the end of it all, the CM and her manager simply smiled at us and said, "we believe that there's been some sort of mix-up and that the agent made a mistake when she gave us your information and then forgot to give you the paperwork we would have sent to her, but don't you worry about a thing. We'll call your travel agent tomorrow and figure all of this out. In the meantime, here are room keys and KTTW cards for the 7-day parkhoppers you say you paid for. You just go and have a nice time." We were flabbergasted. This CM and her manager were literally taking our word for it that we'd booked a vacation and paid them already, and committed to straightening everything out themselves so that we could enjoy our vacation. Talk about magic! (True to their word, they did straighten everything out the next day. Our TA had misspelled our names so badly that our records were impossible to find in Disney's system, and had given us printouts of her own internal office documentation of our trip instead of the vouchers from Disney). We made sure to write a letter afterwards to Disney corporate, praising the extraordinary efforts of the CM and her manager, who turned a short-lived nightmare into a stress-free dream vacation in an instant.

 

[Figments Friend]

Oh yes...i had a nice turnaround.

This was back in October of 2007, the day after the big fan rally celebration for EPCOT's 25th Anniversary.
In the late morning i wandered back over to EPCOT to see what remnants were left after the previous days spectacle.
After a hour or so i headed to the Monorail station to hop a ride over to the TTC.
Monorail Silver pulled into the station and with hardly anyone around i stepped into the very back cab.
I wanted to be alone.
The post-event crash was settling in after the previous days roller-coaster of emotional excitement, and i was feeling a bit blue.
So there i sat in the back cab of Monorail Silver all to myself...brooding.

Suddenly two gents appear and jump into the cab just before the doors close and we pull out of the station.
They sat directly next to me, even though no one else was in the cab with us.

We begin our little journey to the TTC, and i cannot help but overhear them talking about a topic that grabs my ear -
They enthusiastically begin talking about how incredible yesterday was and how some people they knew within the Company were very impressed with what had happened with the 25th.
These two talked as if they had connections internally...and some of the things they said definitely made me prick my ears up.
It was actually pretty cool to hear them openly talk about this and it made me feel better knowing these guys seemed fairly blown away by what took place.
It also made me realize that yes, we DID make a impact and a difference and here were two internals discussing it right next to me!
If they only knew who they were sitting next to.....

We reach the TTC and just before we pull into the station one of said gents notices the custom painted Figment t-shirt i was wearing.
I had made it for the 25th Event, and it showed a original version of the character surrounded by EPCOT Center Pavilion logos.
He makes a comment about it, and then mentions something about the 25th Event that happened the previous day.
I quietly murmer that i had something to do with that....and a few other revealing comments...and next thing i know they are both staring at me wide eyed and freaking out in a good way. Wish i had a photo of their faces...!

Suddenly i go from feeling like a lump, to feeling like a celebrity.
They gush about the accomplishment, and want to 'reward' me somehow.
They immediately invite me to accompany them into the Magic Kingdom for the afternoon and take part in a special visit they were scheduled to take that day.
They were meeting up with a couple of friends who work internally for the Company and wanted me to 'tag along'.
Of course i accepted the kind offer.
So we departed the TTC and arrived at the MK for a memorable adventure.

A good chunk of that time was spent in the company of Ron ( 'The Dreamfinder' ) Schneider touring certain areas of the Park and having a quaint lunch, as well as getting a through inside tour of The Haunted Mansion and a few other Attractions.
All three were very gracious with their time and generosity.
When i admitted to being a fan of Tony Baxter they all looked at each other with a happy glint in their eyes. I guess that mattered...well, he does to me!

We parted company after lunch, and i left the MK stunned.
Talk about a complete turnaround within the course of a few hours.
What had happened was a nice surprise and seemed to help me turnaround my attitude towards everything in a big way.

So it was a 'happy ending' after all....!

 

[Disney Shib]

My father has gone down one of the slides at Typhoon Lagoon. He forgot he left 2 $100 bills in his bathing suit pocket which he had planned to use for lunch, drinks and souviners while at the park. He didn't realize the pocket of his shorts was unzipped and the money was gone until after we'd been in the wave pool as well and wanted to grab beers at the small bar there. We went and talked to a CM who directed us to a manager. He said there was nothing they could do but that we could try back at park close and they would check the filter of the wave pool and waterslide my dad had been on. Sure enough at 5:30 when we went back to meet the manager we had spoken to he had a huge smile on his face and handed my father back 2 wet $100 bills which were found stuck in the filter of the Crush n' Gusher. He was so shocked. There was no way in hell we thought they were going to find 1 let alone both bills. We had chalked it up to poor money management.

 

[Kuzcotopia]

When we visited in January of 2013, we were on the train and I started getting in a bad mood. Rarely an issue at WDW, but it was our last day, around 10am, and I was just "down."

We got off at Frontierland, and I thought a little food would pick us up. We were all just hanging Pecos Bill's sharing an order of fries and grouching at each when my daughter named
Deputy for the Day, given a hat, about a dozen CMs with cowbells came out and she was announced on the street.

It was unbelievable, and the most magical thing that happened on the trip.

 

[FettFan]

Last time we were there they had got our booking wrong and only gave us a 7 day park hopper instead of a 14 day one. So after been denied entry from HS we went to guest relations sorted it out after proving we had booked and payed for a 14 day park hopper. As a result we were given free fast passes for ToT, TSM and RnR to use whenever we wanted as well as some disney dollars to cover the cost of a phone call back to England.

I didn't know they still did Disney Dollars. Interesting.

 

[FettFan]

We had chalked it up to poor money management.

Looks like your father...

Avoided liquidation.



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